Australia’s Nick Kyrgios overcame a mid-match meltdown and his rival’s shoe repair delays to defeat Greek top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and reach the ATP Washington Open final.
The 52nd-ranked Aussie hammered 19 aces, saved a match point and often played to the crowd in a dramatic and emotional 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory over Tsitsipas, whose broken shoes caused two third-set delays.
Tsitsipas, who becomes world number five on Monday, fell behind a set and a break, took advantage of Kyrgios losing control with racquet slams and call complaints to force a third set, only to fall in the tie-breaker.
Kyrgios will play for the $365,390 (328,851 euro) top prize against 10th-ranked Russian Daniil Medvedev, who eliminated German lucky loser Peter Gojowczyk 6-2, 6-2.
The 24-year-old Aussie beat Medvedev this year in Rome in their only prior meeting.
Kyrgios, who improved to 4-1 against top-10 rivals this year, seeks a sixth career ATP title and his first since Acapulco in March.
“It’s probably one of the best tournament weeks of my life,” Kyrgios said.
Medvedev, 23, seeks his fifth ATP title after taking his most recent crown at Sofia in February.
Italy’s 62nd-ranked Camila Giorgi, a 2018 Wimbledon quarter-finalist seeking her third WTA title, and 79th-ranked American Jessica Pegula advanced to the women’s final at the US Open tuneup tournament.
Kyrgios excited the crowd throughout with such flamboyant moves as underhand serves, between the legs shots and leaping drop shots. Other times he would just swat away.
“He was on fire in some moments,” Tsitsipas said.
“It felt like sometimes he didn’t care at all. It’s probably his plan to put you out of focus.”
Kyrgios admitted, “I’ve always been able to play high level tennis. I just need to be more consistent. I have to be mentally tougher.”
It was the Greek star’s first match against Kyrgios, who is of Greek and Malaysian heritage. Each man won 91 points, hit 58 of 91 first serves, won 48 of 58 first-serve points and 16-of-33 second serve points.
“His serve was just unreal first set. I couldn’t do anything with it,” said Tsitsipas.
“I haven’t seen anything like it.”
1st doubles title
US teen Coco Gauff, the 15-year-old who electrified Wimbledon with a fourth-round singles run last month, captured her first WTA title on Saturday in women’s doubles.
Gauff and partner Catherine McNally, who combined to win last year’s US Open junior women’s doubles title, defeated Hungary's Fanny Stollar and American Maria Sanchez 6-2, 6-2 to hoist their inaugural WTA trophy.
The teens jumped into each others arms and later hugged in celebration of the breakthrough milestone triumph.
Gauff defeated idol Venus Williams in the first round at Wimbledon and rescued two match points on the way to beating Polona Hercog in the third round before eventual champion Simona Halep eliminated her.
Gauff, in her first post-Wimbledon singles appearance, qualified for the Washington main draw but lost her first match 6-4, 6-2 to Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas.
McNally, a 17-year-old American who made only her fourth WTA appearance in singles, took her first three tour match wins to reach the semi-finals, where she lost 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 on Saturday to Italy’s Camila Giorgi.